Eazeye Radiant, Meet Your First Transflective LCD Touchscreen Monitor

Everything E Ink Can Do And More

Offers Full Colour, 60Hz and Multi-touch

The Eazeye Radiant is the second display designed by the young entrepreneur Louis Huang, the first lacked any backlight at all and was purely powered by the ambient light around you.  The Eazeye Radiant is a hybrid, with both a backlight and semi-reflective surfaces behind the actual display to allow it to use ambient light to enhance the brightness of the display.  It’s USB-C and HDMI inputs ensure you can plug this touchscreen into any device and have it display on the screen.

The look is similar to an E Ink display, but offers full colour and with a 60Hz refresh rate you won’t see the ghosting which can be very apparent on E Ink devices.  The design also allows the Eazeye Radiant to function while drawing a comparatively minuscule amount of power.  It is also much better at dealing with direct sunlight than a traditional display, if anything it enhances both the brightness and lowers the amount of power it draws.

It is being launched on Indiegogo today, April 16th.

The Flexible Eazeye Radiant

The touch LCD comes well protected, with two stands which are boxed separately.  One stand is plastic and very light, handy to toss in a laptop bag but limited to one angle.  The other is all metal and has very stiff joints which let you set any angle you might want.  You should not adjust the angle while the Eazeye Radiant is on it as the force needed to adjust the stand would not be appreciated by the panel at all.  The touchpad display is light enough to hold in your hand, the thicker portion of the display is on the bottom and that makes it much easier to hold onto.

There are two USB-C ports, the top intended for power and the middle for signal.  If you only use the middle USB-C the tablet will receive both power and video but you will find the brightness limited to 30%.  You can populate both USB-C plugs, one for power and one for signal to enable 100% on the backlight if you aren’t using it in a brightly lit area as it is intended for.  The Eazeye Radiant ships with a USB-A to USB-C cable and wall wart as well as a high speed USB-C 3.2 cable.  You will also find an HDMI to mini-HDMI cable, if you want to output HDMI to the Radiant and power it with USB-C.

As you should expect, in order for the Radiant to function as a touchscreen you will need to have a USB connection between your source and the Eazeye.

Two Sides To The Eazeye Radiant

The other side offers a button which toggles input modes between HDMI and USB-C, which the panel will do automatically anyways, and a headphone jack towards the bottom.   The middle switch is both a button and a toggle, by pressing it in you will bring up the OSD which is best controlled by touch.  That can be a little frustrating if you are dependant on HDMI alone.

The OSD is quite comprehensive, with presets similar to that found on normal displays, and as you can see below the panel is Freesync capable.  That is not to give you extremely high refresh rates but to ensure the panel can handle higher speed video without needing V-SYNC.  You can raise and lower the settings using the touch interface or with the toggle if you need slightly more accuracy.

When the OSD is not displayed, the toggle adjusts brightness with the maximum level determined by the power source.  Without proper USB-C power you will be limited to a maximum of 30%, otherwise the whole range is available.

Indoor Use

When connected to a PC via HDMI with USB power you can see the major limitation of a transflective panel, which is the contrast ratio.  Since the backlight is intended to assist the semi-reflective material behind the screen the Eazeye Radiant simply can’t match the power of a fully functional backlight.  The brightness of the display, both with room lighting and in the dark is more than adequate to be of use.  If you have a program like ProTools or VMix which offer onscreen controls then this would be a very handy addition to your setup.  The touchscreen is sensitive and accurate enough to adjust settings and the size of the Eazeye Radiant is significantly larger than an iPad or other dedicated device.

It can also be a handy secondary screen when you are gaming as well, not just for streaming but to check IMs, comments and emails.  The 60Hz refresh rate is more than enough for those purposes, even if you wanted to fire up a YouTube video on it.

Getting On The Road

When you take the Eazeye Radiant outside the transflective properties truly shine through.   As opposed to a traditional screen which is overpowered by the sun and appears washed out, the Radiant gets brighter.  It still doesn’t help the contrast much, and the exceptionally shiny screen means you need to be careful positioning it but the picture is easily seen.   The pictures don’t do the display justice, when you are actually looking at the screens the Dell is more washed out than it appears in the picture and the Eazeye Radiant brighter.

When you provide power, in this case through a USB charger, at 100% brightness you can easily sit and watch videos in bright sunlight. That is hard to achieve with a traditional laptop, tablet or smartphone without extra steps.  The panel is compatible with both iPhone and Android, making it perfect for taking it on a trip.  The incredibly low power draw also allows it to pull off an extra trick!

Solar Powered Display Mk. 2

The incredibly low power draw of the Eazeye Radiant and the fact that the first project 18 year old Louis Huang came up with was purely solar powered raised a question.   Would it be possible to get the full brightness out of the Eazeye Radiant with a solar USB charger?   The question was easily answered with an X-DRAGON Foldable Solar Charger, something very handy to have in your earthquake kit.  The Radiant was connected to the Dell laptop via the HDMI cable, and power supplied by the X-DRAGON.

The Radiant was able to run at 100% brightness with no issue while only being powered by the sun.  If you took this on the road with you, you would be able to connect your phone or laptop and enjoy the full capabilities of the Radiant without needing to worry about a power source.  The panel will happily perform when powered by any type of USB charger.  You will also see your mobile phone start charging when the charger offers more power than the Eazeye Radiant needs to function.

You certainly don’t need to worry about powering the Eazeye Radiant’s backlight when you are out in the sun, but having it act as a charging station whilst your only USB-C plug is busy sending audio and video is definitely a great feature.

Life’s A Beach With The Eazeye Radiant

The idea behind a transflective LCD display is brilliant, a solution for anyone who wants to do work or watch videos while outside.  Instead of squinting at your laptop screen while trying to shade it from direct sunlight to prevent the image from washing out, you can sit fully exposed to the sun.  You do need to be careful about the reflections, else you will end up getting a painful glimpse at the reflection of the sun.  Placing a matte coating on the display would interfere with sunlight reflecting off the insides however, so it the shiny screen is by design.

On the other hand, the contrast ratio simply can’t compare to a display with a full backlight so if you were thinking about using to edit pictures or create art you will likely be disappointed.  The same goes for watching movies, the lack of contrast will detract from your enjoyment even though the overall picture will certainly be clearer than on your laptop and larger than your phone.  You don’t have to drag a power source with you, as you can see in the pictures the maximum 30% brightness of the backlight is more than compensated for by the extra brightness provided by the ambient light surrounding you.

If you do want an external screen to watch something from your phone while relaxing at the beach you won’t find another product that will match the Eazeye Radiant.   If you are unused to camping, this would let you watch YouTube videos to help you set up camp, and with a solar panel or battery it would charge your phone while you figure everything out.  When summer arrives it could also give you a way to work outside, without having to squint at a washed out laptop screen, which could be a very nice usage for the Eazeye Radiant.

The $700 asking price is a bit of a barrier, but price does reflect it’s unique characteristics and the fact that it doesn’t benefit from the cost effectiveness of mass production.  It will be very interesting to see what Louis Huang comes up with next, he’s had an early start at designing, producing and selling unique products.  Here’s hoping for more interesting projects from him in the future.